Khemka rebuts Haryana Agriculture Department claims

Chandigarh: Controversial IAS officer Ashok Khemka on Friday hit out at Haryana agriculture department over its claim that the state seeds corporation had incurred loss under him, saying it was an attempt to "disparage" his efforts to remove corruption and bring "professionalism and transparency" in the interests of farmers of the state.

In a fresh missive to Chief Secretary PK Chaudhery, Khemka said the "insinuations against me in the government press release on November 22 was totally unwarranted," and went out in detail to "put the record straight".

He claimed that he was "abruptly" transferred out within a day of "motivated complaint" from a senior IAS officer "who prima facie has a lot to hide".

The authorities in Agriculture department and Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) had issued a press release on November 22 saying that HSDC had incurred a net loss during his tenure as its Managing Director.

Khemka was the Managing Director of HSDC from October 15, 2012 to April 4, 2013. Seeking a statement of profit and loss of HSDC during the period, he said it will help him submit a "true and correct" self-appraisal for the performance appraisal report.

"The press release was a crass attempt to disparage my sincere efforts to remove corruption and to re-structure the Corporation to bring in professionalism and transparency in its working in the interests of farmers," he said.

The press release had said that "profit got reduced to Rs 175.96 lakh during the tenure of Ashok Khemka". HSDC suffered a net loss of Rs 56 lakh on account of interest for only three months (January to March 2013) on huge unsold quantity of 87,000 quintals of certified wheat seed worth Rs 22 crore.

Khemka, on November 22, had contested the state's claim, saying he had "consciously stopped cheating" other agencies.

The controversial IAS officer was posted as the MD of HSDC after he, as Special Collector, Land Acquisition, cancelled the mutation of the land deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF.